Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Manila Concert Review by Rachel

Rachelle is a Libera fan from the Philippines who also went all the way to Singapore to see them last year! She wrote a review of the Manila concert to share with other fans. She gives so many nice details! Thank you, Rachelle!

Woke up with a splitting headache, probably from too much excitement and
high emotions from last night's concert. It was truly an amazing,
fantastic and wonderful one. It was my 4th Libera concert and I think
this is the one I enjoyed the most. It was an enthusiastic crowd
(probably always is, in the Pines ) last night at the PICC and I felt the high energies in the air (both coming from the crowd and the boys).

Here are my other thoughts/experiences on last night's concert:

>
Not really sure but Gloria sounded different to me last night as
compared to when I heard it sung in Singapore and Taiwan. I caught my
friend, Milet, who was seated right next to me smiling and giving a
thumbs-up sign to Isaac here. He smiled back at her. :D

>
I've forgotten the Tagalog words spoken by Nano Ben after they sung
Gloria but I know I liked it and was delighted with what he said. I
probably had a funny looking reaction to that coz I saw Matthew RA
chuckling and looking at me (we were seated on the third row from the
stage where the boys have a clear view of us).

> At the start
of Wexford Carol, Isaac was standing to the right side of the stage
illuminated by a green light. He looked ethereal to me here, both on the
stage and on the widescreen.

>
I'm Dreaming of Home - a new song to me but felt it so much that it
brought tears to my eyes. I can't share my reason why but it truly hit
my heart. Tom's solo all the more moved me. Love you, Tom :D

>
The two little ones, Gabe and Alex G. - Alex moves a lot when he sings.
Hehe. So cute. Uber cute Gabe. I don't know if he doesn't memorize all
the lyrics of all the songs they sing, but sometimes I would catch him
singing or mouthing some words different from the rest of the choir.
LOl. Sooo cute. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong on this or my eyes are
just playing tricks on me.

> Isaac was yawning a lot last
night during the first set. Not sure if he was sleepy or just bored.
Hehe. They were already about to sing " Away" and he was still yawning
and had his hands to his mouth. Saw Ciaran, who was right next to him,
look at him and he looked as if he was telling Isaac, "What are you
doing?" :D Isaac probably was just psyching and prepping himself for their next song. Actually, HIS next song.

>
Hymn to Mary - A beautiful full solo by Isaac. It's a new song and
debuted in the Philippines. Yay! All the boys were kneeling here. Had to
ask Isaac at the autograph signing what the title of this song was.

>
In Dulci Jubilo - Love, love the background Celtic sound in this song.
My sister and I were actually swaying on our seats. Hehe. Anthony Blake
saw us here and was all smiles. Probably happy to see us enjoying it. ;)

>
Intro music to Orinoco Flow was instantly recognized by the audience
and was applauded. Obviously one of the favourites. Sang with them on
this line " From Peru to Cebu" :p

> What Child Is This - First time to distinctly hear Jude's voice. I like the sound of it. :)

>
The Moon - Good song choice by Libera to include in their repertoire.
Was much appreciated by the Filipino-Chinese in the audience. So nice to
hear it again after hearing it first in Taiwan in April.

>
Nano Ben said goodbye on behalf of the choir. Cannot remember his exact
words but I think this is what he said " Maraming salamat po. Mahal na
mahal namin ang Pilipinas" translated to " Thank you. We love the
Philippines so much", in English. His tongue got twisted on this but
that endeared him more to the crowd. Thank you, Libera, for trying to
learn and speak our language. We feel like you truly belong. :D

>
Have Yourself... - Felt a pinch to my heart when this was sung. It was
Michael UR's solo in the CD and I was really missing him, but sweet
Ciaran did a great job here.

> Bayan Ko - I've heard this
numerous times on YouTube and in the New Dawn CD, but it still gave me
goosebumps. It's really quite an experience hearing it live. Of course I
had to scream my appreciation afterwards. Hehe. Didn't even care that
we were at the PICC. Lol.

> Lighting & background effects were nice but not as dramatic as in the DVD.

>
When a soloing boy is illuminated and projected on screen, he always
looked ethereal. One exception for me is Isaac in Wexford. He looked
ethereal both on stage and on screen. :D

> Not sure but Moose looked much smaller than their previous tours. Probably the "old" one has retired.

>
Meet and greet afterwards was fun. The boys were all smiles and looked
to be really enjoying themselves. They didn't look tired at all. Even
Lucas who seem to have had jet lag last Sunday was already smiling and
looking a lot better.

> There was no limit as to the number of
fans that were allowed for autographs. Those who bought DVDs and CDs
were prioritized. Both DVDs and CDs were sold out. Yeah!

> The
M&Gs here are more relaxed than in SG and Taiwan. Fans were allowed
to have pictures with the boys. Of course the boys still had to be
seated and there was a table between the fan and the boys.

4 comments:

i miss that Night when was Libera are here in Manila. its so amazing experience to be there in Libera Concert (in PICC) unforgetable moment adn experience. thank you libera for sharing your angelic voice to all Filipino.

hello lexi and lauren - been a while since i visited your blog, and yes, i enjoyed reading rachelle's review of the PICC concert. we were there, too - thanks to a good friend, jon de castro of libera360 and his mom who gave us 3 front row tickets. made it more exciting because josh was directly in our direction, i could hear the "swooosh" of the piano piece as he flips it. he alternated with steven g. on the piano & keyboard.

oh, i'm getting ahead of the story on my blog. informing you that i transferred to a new home (wordpress) from blogspot. you can reach it through orangecat1958.wordpress.com i made mention lexi & yuki's blogs as my references. i "borrowed" a picture of the boys taken in one of their asian tours. this is just sort of an intro but should you wish to have me remove it, i will.

i didn't take pics that much as my hands are not steady anymore. i made a short video (after concert signing at the PICC) and hope to get it posted in my blog, too. i have some pics taken during the M & G at the glorietta. there were these 3 girls who wanted to give a gift to josh (i told them to hand it over to andy) but they were too shy. so i called on andy & he thought of a better way to make josh's fans happy - he called him outside so they were able to have a very short M & G with josh. my daughter took good shots of him. i had to stay away as i gave the girls their moment.

oh well, i'll save the story in my blog. it will take time as i still need to transfer all those photos to my computer. thank you again for letting me use mini angels site for reference. my best regards.